1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flight strips management method and system for rationalizing management of movement of aircraft at an airport.
2. Description of the Related Art
Examples of airport information systems are control function systems, flight information display systems, spot (embarkation/arrival hatches or aircraft parking spaces) allocation function systems, gate (passenger entrance/exit) allocation function systems, servicing function systems, and crisis management function systems. In each information system, the respective computers manage individual items of information and the operators perform their respective functions using respective computers. Thus, the respective functions in the airport as a whole are automated to a high degree.
Also, aircraft in an airport have been managed by cards (flight strips) that give movement information such as take-off and landing times for each aircraft.
All these information systems are designed so that the individual items of information can be managed using respective computers.
Since, with such prior art information systems, information was individually managed using respective computers, for example in the case of crisis management, overall management of the condition of all the aircraft in an airport could not be achieved by any computer. The operators were therefore unable to ascertain the condition of all aircraft within an airport in real time.
Also, when an aircraft was late in arrival, or an aircraft was late in taking off, or an aircraft was cancelled, since the spot allocation function system and gate allocation function system managed their information individually, with the prior art information systems, management to reallocate an aircraft to the optimum spot or optimum gate was not possible. The operators therefore had to perform a troublesome process of allocation of optimum resources.
Accordingly, a management system is desired that can mutually link respective information systems such as crisis management function, spot allocation function, gate allocation function etc. Also, it is expected that flight strips management by electronic means will represent the kernel of such a management system.